More supports for students experiencing academic and mental health challenges are coming to Alberta schools.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says $113 million will be provided over the next three years, with $30 million spent for the 2022-23 school year.
“There’ll be $10 million for specialized assessments and these assessments really are what we found over the last year that there has been a backlog of assessments that are necessary for our children. These include speech language pathologist assessments, physical therapists, occupational therapists and child psychology type of assessments.”
According to LaGrange, there’s also money being provided for improving delivery of mental health supports, and learning loss supports for students in grades 2-4.
LaGrange says they’re also reintroducing a pilot program for school nutrition projects.
“This is something that all school authorities across the province have been focused on, unfortunately the pandemic did disrupt that pilot program that we have ongoing. Currently we spend $17 million and it feeds roughly about 40,000 students but we know there’s more need out there.”
We talked to LaGrange on the Trending 55 Hot Seat, you can hear that full discussion below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
